Gymnastics: Gymnastics faces Florida in final home meet

Pauley Pavilion will be full of goodbyes and welcome-backs this
Sunday as the No. 4 UCLA gymnastics team (10-3) squares off against
No. 6 Florida (10-2) in what is sure to be a highly emotional dual
meet.

With only two regular-season meets remaining before postseason
competition, this weekend will mark the final time UCLA seniors
Kristen Maloney, Christie Tedmon and Kisha Auld perform on the
Pauley Pavilion floor.

“I’m going to go in there and savor the
moment,” Maloney said. “I want to be able to enjoy
competing in Pauley for the last time.”

And while the team’s three seniors bid farewell, two
former Bruins will make their return to UCLA.

Florida coach Rhonda Faehn was a UCLA All-American gymnast
serving under the tutelage of current UCLA coach Valorie Kondos
Field from 1990-1992. Faehn’s assistant coach, Randy Lane,
served as an assistant coach to Kondos Field from 1992-1994 and
again from 1998-2001. During his second stint as UCLA’s
assistant coach, Lane was part of two of the Bruins’ NCAA
Championships and was named the National Assistant Coach of the
Year in 2000.

“It will be exciting to face them,” Kondos Field
said of her former pupils. “They’re family, and it will
definitely be a homecoming.”

If the meet wasn’t already sufficiently filled with
enticing subplots, Sunday will also mark junior Kate
Richardson’s return to competition after sitting out the last
meet due to a functional rupture of the ulnar collateral ligament
in her right thumb.

“We’re hopeful she can do beam and she might do
vault and floor, but I don’t know yet,” Kondos Field
said.

While Richardson’s apparatus status is up in the air, one
certainty is that her services will be sorely needed against a
stacked Florida team that has been hard to beat this season.

While the Bruins hold a 6-1 all-time record over the Gators,
Florida’s whopping seven All-American gymnasts have built a
juggernaut this year. Led by sophomore Chantelle Tousek, sister of
former UCLA All-American Yvonne Tousek, this team figures to
provide the Bruins with a stiffer test than in past years. Because
both teams will be contending to reach the Super Six at the NCAA
Championships at the end of this season, the Bruins are placing
added emphasis on excelling on Sunday.

“I think it’s very important for us to do
well,” Kondos Field said. “If we hit our routines well,
the way we’ve been doing in practice, we should
win.”